January was a busy month for Schola Magdalena. We had a concert at the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene in Toronto on Friday Jan. 14th, and then toured to Stratford for an afternoon workshop, tea and concert. It was a snowy day, but the folks in Stratford did come out and we were treated like royalty! We were each given a beautiful bouquet after the concert (ah, roses!) and Nicola Adair cooked us a gourmet dinner with plenty of excellent wine before we were poured onto the Via Rail train back to Toronto. It was a wonderful weekend, and great to have those relaxing hours on the train to chat and get caught up with Janet who flew back home from Strasbourg to sing with us. But we didn’t stop there. On Sunday night we had a three-hour recording session, and the same again on Monday night. So now Bruce Hill and Frank Lockwood will work their magic editing the CD and hopefully we can launch it in October.
After all that, I’ve been working on a new choral composition that has taken all my attention for the last few days (besides church choir of course!). As a result my house looks like an undergraduate hovel with papers strewn about and the telltale signs of dietary neglect – empty cans of baked beans and spaghetti – however, a few nice snowy days like this are perfect for writing music.